LAX- They made it! Well, sort of

Jack before the plane lands in alternate timeline

Let’s assume that, as a dying Juliet declares to Sawyer, she has something to tell him, later, through Miles (at Sawyer’s persistence) telling him, “It worked”, intimating that Jack was indeed successful…and yet Jack must still resume his current situation on the island. Cuse and Lindelof have offered two timelines, one where those specific Oceanic (and freighter, in Miles’ case) survivors in 1977 ended up ahead in 2007 to encounter Jacob’s faithful and another where everyone on the Oceanic Flight 815 made it to LAX (with a wee bit of turbulence). LAX follows the landing and airport activities of the main cast. On the island Sawyer just wants to make Jack pay for Juliet’s death, crushed under the debris within the drill spot at the Swan. Sayid’s wound appears to be fatal, and yet there is a temple with “healing waters” Jacob insists Hurley must carry his dying friend, so that is a major mission that coincides with Bram and gunmen (supporters of Jacob) going into the lair under the foot statue to locate the adversary using Locke’s form as a disguise. Jack telling Locke, in a wheelchair, that he could call him up regarding looking at his spine (Locke lost a piece of luggage (his bag of knives) while Jack’s father come up missing (“in transit” much to his dismay)) is a nice little moment in the alternate 2004 timeline, while Kate goes to make her escape from the marshal while at the airport, taking a cab with Claire inside, telling the cabbie (marshal’s gun in hand pointed at him) to drive. Sawyer still quips and even shares an elevator ride with Kate, while Sayid plans to find his love. Hurley seems to be okay with Artz (not blown to bits) ribbing him about his chicken commercials. Rose and Jack sharing a few loose-conversation dialogue and even Desmond and Jack have a moment where the former just wants to get away from a snoring passenger to read a book. Boone talking a bit with John (totally okay, not broken), the two sharing a warm exchange, with Shannon’s bad relationship mentioned briefly, gets to leave us with him alive and well, disbanding in one piece. And even dopehead Charlie is rescued from a near suffocation thanks to Jack’s dislodging the bag of heroin during a failed attempted swallowing. I like the idea of giving us an alternative to what is happening on the island (not underwater as unveiled when the Oceanic makes it to LAX safely), with Juliet confirming that this other reality is quite real…and that Jack didn’t cost her a life in vain. Of course telling that to Sawyer, after he buried Juliet, is a different story.

While the allure of altering the outcome of Desmond not pushing the button which sent out the electromagnetic energy that caused the plane to crash seemed ideal to Jack, it appears not everyone who lands in LA will have the easiest of times. Jin brought in a watch and money from Sun's father, his employer, and luggage check has suspicion regarding his reasons for arriving in the States.